The Darkening Horizon
by Mixie94
Summary: The horizon is darkening, a storm is brewing. A hero and a great enemy have fallen. During a failed mission an explosion occurred and neither Sonic or Robotnik were seen leaving the building. The question is, are they really dead?
1. Prologue

I don't own any of the Sonic characters, they belong to their rightful owners.

This is the prologue to the story, so this is more of an introductory chapter instead of being chapter one. Keep that in mind. Anyways I had this story idea for a while and since I am having some writer's block for my other story, I figured why not start on this one? Lets get the show on the road shall we 8D

* * *

_Tails __was on the floor in a daze__, he had no clue what had hit him. __The room was spinning__ for a few seconds before he came back to his senses__. __The young fox __quickly remembered that he was in a middle of a fight, __his f__riends and him were ambushed. The mission was failing and it just barely started. Robots where __as far as he could see, but they__ didn__'t seem __too interested in him __at the moment. Tails could see both Sonic and Knuckles in the distance, they both looked to be in troubl__e. They were being out numbered by the robots._

"_I got to get u__p, I have to help them__" muttered the two tailed fox to himself as he __tried to sit__ up. Tails winced in pain with every attempt, he was more h__urt the__n he __thought. __With some quick thinking he __used the wall__ that was near him to help him get to his feet. The young fox __held his breath __as he __used the wall, __it w__as one o__f the __most painful experi__ences he ever had. __Sharp pains shot through his bod__y but he managed to get back onto his feet. _

_It was a struggle __for Tails to keep standing, __but he didn__'t want t__o let his friends down so he tr__ied to bear through the p__ain. __Out of the corner of his eye the two tailed fox spotted a robo__t ready to fire__. It was aiming for Sonic, who was still preoccupied at the moment by the __huge amount of robots__ along with Knuckles. _

"_Look out Sonic__" __shouted Tails, but it was d__rowned out by the fighting. There was no time to lose, he had to act. He ran as fast as his body would allow him towards the robot._

_Time __started to move slow__er__ as Tail__'s hea__rt beat began to move faster__ as he __continued to run.__ All he could hear was the thumping of his heart, everything seemed to be drowned out by it. The__ robot__'s weapon fired a pure __white laser__. T__ail__s started to feel numb as he came __closer to the robo__t, and then he just jum__ped in __front of the lase__r__ without a second thought.__ Time started to speed up and__ the noise started to take over again._

_Tail__s let out a __yelp when he got hit. He __fell back onto the ground__ with a thud__, he could feel himself slip__ away from reality into __darkness. Nothing seemed to matter anymore, he didn__'t feel any pain. Tails though could faintly hear crashing noises, as if the robots were breaking themselves..._

"_Tails!__"__, it sounded like Sonic__'s voice __and it echoed for what it seemed for years..._

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Sonic's voice kept echoing though Tails's head for a few more seconds, it sounded as clear as day. The darkness that surrounded the fox started to fade away to light as he slowly opened his eyes. Oddly he felt a lot of pain as he started to become more awake as if when sleeping he was numb. The more he became awake the pain increase, it felt as if a bus or another large vehicle had hit him. He also had somewhat of an burning sensation on as well but the pain was the worse. As the room started to become more focused and less hazy Tails started to see that he was in a room, even though all he was looked at was the ceiling so he was not a hundred percent sure where he was. The young fox could feel that he was on top of the sheets as if someone had just laid him on the bed because he was not under the covers but could still feel them.

"How did I get here, where am I?" muttered the two tailed fox in a ruff and cracked voice. It even hurt to talk.

Tails heard the door open but could not see who it was. He just kept looking up at the ceiling, like he was when he first waked up. He could hear footsteps coming towards him even though they were soft as if walking on carpet.

"Whos there?" Tails asked after a few seconds.

"You're awake?" the footsteps stopped "Its me, Silver"

"Silver?" said the two tailed Fox in a confused voice as he tried to sit up. It though was harder said then when sharp pain shot through him, causing him to yelp. Silver ran over to him in concern.

"Don't sit up Tails, you were banged up pretty badly" he replied, Tails could now see Silver for he was over him. The silver colored hedgehog gently put the young fox back to a laying position.

"What happened, where am I" asked Tails

"You're at home" said Silver, he then paused for a moment before talking again. "Well from what I heard you took a hit from a laser gun and you weren't in good shape to start with. You were out cold when I got there."

When Silver mentioned the laser, Tails instantly was taken back to the dream he just had. Flashes from the dream flowed through his mind, the robot was going to shoot Sonic when he was off guard but the young fox took the shot for him. "Is Sonic okay?"

The psychic hedgehog's facial expression seemed to drop at the sound of Sonic's name, he looked away from Tails as if he knew something but did not want to tell. "Don't worry about Sonic" said Silver quickly.

Tails caught on to the change in Silver, he wondered what the psychic hedgehog knew. The two tailed fox weakly sat up, wincing with each movement that he did, to look at the psychic hedgehog better. Silver took a few steps backwards. He seemed to be on edge, although he tried to not show but failed miserably. With Silver acting like that caused Tails's heart to drop, he had a bad feeling something happened.

"Silver, I need to know if Sonic is alright. Did something happen to him?" asked the two tailed fox even though he pained him to talk, worry was heard in his voice.

"Tails just drop the subject, okay" snapped Silver after a minute.

"No I won't drop the subject. Tell me, is he okay?" said Tails firmly, Sonic was his best friend in the world so he was not about to drop the subject. He wanted to know if the blue hedgehog was okay and the way things where going at the moment the two tailed fox was worried.

"You really don't want to know Tails, trust me." said the psychic hedgehog with a sigh

"Yes I do. Did something bad happen to him?"

Silver hesitated, he knew this would not end but at the same time Tails would not stop asking about Sonic. It probably was a dead giveaway that Sonic was not there because of the bond the two had, they always had to make sure the other is alright. Sonic not seeing Tails sent up a red flag for the young fox.

"Fine Tails, but you will not like it." said Silver, he then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He did not want to see Tails's reaction "An huge explosion happened during the mission that caused the building to be completely destroyed. Sonic never left the building, he is presumed dead along with Robotnik."

Tails just sat there speechless for a few moments. It looked like someone had just stabbed him in the heart or torn out the young fox's heart completely. Not a single tear came from his eyes but he was big eyed, most likely the shock had got to him. "No, it couldn't be"

"Tails I'm sorry"

The two tailed fox shook his head as if he was completely denied was he just heard. The flow of tears started to come. "No, you're lying. Sonic can't be dead, he was fine the last time I saw him"

"It happened after you passed out, you've been out for a while."

"No" shouted Tails, he tried to get off the bed. He still had trouble moving but that was not going to the young fox. After a few painful tries Tails managed to get out of bed, but he collapsed onto the ground almost instantly. He was too weak to support his own body. The two tailed fox was on his knees facing the ground as he used his arms to keep him up. He was not looking at Silver at all. "No you're lying" muttered Tails in a heart broken tone.

"Hold on let me help you back into bed" said Silver bending down to the fox. He tried to help the two tailed fox up, but Tails would have nothing to do with the psychic hedgehog.

"Don't touch me!" shouted the young fox again. Tears rolled down his face and hit the ground as he clutched his hands into fists. "Sonic can't be dead, he just can't be." He then whispered in a very low tone "I'm sorry Sonic, I'm so sorry that I let you down"

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So there you have it the prologue to the story(yeah its a bit on the vague side but that is what I am aiming for in this prologue). I hope it didn't fail too much, I sort of suck with openings XD

I don't know when I'll get the actual first chapter up for this story, but I'll try not to keep you all waiting too long. Till then see you later.


	2. Grey Skies

The memorial service for Sonic was only a couple of days after the failed mission, it wasn't a funeral though. Neither Sonic's or Robonik's bodies were found in the explosion even though they had volunteers looking through the rubble of the building. Most just thought that the blue hedgehog and the doctor just evaporated in the explosion, which would explain why there was no bodies. It was most likely a quick and painless death though. No one was sure on what caused the explosion in Robotnik's base not even the ones that went along with Sonic on the mission who were Tails, Knuckles and Silver. It had happened quickly and too fast for them to register what happened, Silver and Knuckles that is because Tails was passed out during that time.

A gravestone was made for the hedgehog and a location where they were going to place the grave stone was also picked. It was agreed by everyone that Sonic was not going to have his gravestone at a explosion site but place on one of his favorite spots. It would be the least that everyone could do, although two markers were left at the explosion site. One was for Sonic and one was for Dr. Robotnik. Robotnik in no way was going to get the same treatment as Sonic, he was the villain while the blue hedgehog was the hero. Heroes were always missed, villains faded away in the background even though some do leave their mark on history. Dr. Robotnik could not truly be forgotten because he did leave an imprint on history, he was probably one of the most determined villains ever seen on Mobius even with all the failure plans to take over the world.

It was hard to say who won, Sonic finally defeated Robotnik but Robotnik was victorious in destroying the menacing hedgehog once and for all. Sometimes no one wins or it ends in a draw, this would be one of those times. They both left something behind when they died. Sonic left behind his friends and a legacy while Robotnik left behind all those failed plans and inventions.

* * *

The sun was hiding away behind big, puffy, grey clouds. The warmth was hiding away with the sun, making it a cold chilly day. A small but diligent wind blew around the sky. It played in the branches of the trees like a playful child and whispered so softly that not a single soul could understand what it was saying. The air smelled of moisture. The world was so green today though, but how could such a green day feel so grey and feel so cold?

Colorful flowers stained the grass of a huge lonely hill, but they were not placed there by nature. The hill was protected by a giant oak tree and under the tree was an single grave stone. The flowers were placed in front of it, the ice cold stone read 'Sonic the Hedgehog- the world's fastest hedgehog and the greatest hero we ever known. May he live in our hearts forever'.

A young looking yellow colored fox with two tails looked upon the stone. The fox's name was Miles Prower, but most just call him Tails as a nickname. He wore a blank face as he glanced at the gravestone, as if he did not believe the writing on it. Tails looked to be in a lot of pain and struggled to keep himself standing up. His signature twin tails looked to be damaged, he would not be able to use them to fly until they healed. It was sort of amazing that the young fox even made it to the hill because it was only a short while after the failed mission, he had no time to heal and had a hard time moving on top of it. Tails though made himself bare through the pain for he had to go see his best friend's grave.

"You can't be gone Sonic, you just can't" muttered Tails to himself as he closed his eyes. _I can see you now just coming out of nowhere and laughing about the whole thing. You had made another unbelievable great escape from doom. Then you would be up for another adventure. You know like old times, finish one adventure and then jump into something new._

"How in Mobius did you make it up here?" said a voice out of nowhere.

The sudden appearance of someone made the young fox open his eyes in a jolt. He slowly turned around to see who it was. When he did he saw a red echidna, with a white crescent mark on the chest and purple eyes. Tails instantly recognized that it was Knuckles. The echidna had his right arm in a black colored sling and it was also bandaged up as well. Knuckles didn't really go into detail on how he hurt his arm, so all Tails knew was that it happened sometime during the ambush. All Tails knew was that it wasn't broken, so it was more likely was sprain or in the splint to give the arm some time to heal.

"Oh hi there Knuckles" greeted the two tailed fox with a small smile. He didn't want to show that he was hurting, both physically and emotionally.

Knuckles knew why Tails had forced himself to come, even though the young fox was probably in a lot of pain. The echidna wanted to comfort Tails but he was not good in that area and he would probably make things worse. The two tailed fox was a good kid, he doesn't deserve to go through this. Everyone has to say goodbye at some point, it was though easy for Knuckles because he grew up alone. Yes he was affected by the death of Sonic for they were good friends but for Tails, Sonic was more like an adopted brother. Tails had no family so Sonic had became the only family the young fox knew. Knuckles had no family that he could remember so he didn't really know what it felt like to have someone that close.

"So you got here to see the grave, you know you could have waited until you healed a bit"

"Yeah, but I had to visit Sonic and well..." Tails had started to drift off as he glanced to the ground, he had also came to see prove to himself that Sonic was gone. Even though he still denied the fact a bit.

"You wanted see the grave yourself, right?" said Knuckles as he finished the two tailed fox's sentence, Tails didn't answer. After a few seconds of quietness he spoke again. "It's hard to believe that rock has Sonic's name on it. I'm not all that sure who picked out what to write on it but I guess it is fitting for him"

Tails looked up from the ground but he did not look at the red colored echidna directly but was more looking at the stone. "Yeah its a nice" he replied.

Knuckles sighed, he was getting hardly any where with Tails and it was slightly annoying him. He though tried to keep his cool so he would not start going off on the young fox. The echidna had to keep in mind that the two tailed fox was going through a hard time, Silver told him that Tails pretty much broke down upon hearing the news of Sonic. Knuckles could not think of anything else to try and get the fox to talk to him, he was bad at comforting others. The red mobian thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see if he could get a better look at whatever caught his attention but all he could see was a cloud of dust following a straight line, it was like someone was running at a high pace. Knuckles glared at what he was seeing, it was clear that who was running was not Sonic but he had somewhat of an idea who it was.

It was not long before the line of dust began to come closer, it was slowing down a tad as well. Tails was not looking in the direction that Knuckles was so the young fox did not know about the incoming being. With each passing second, although it seemed faster, the cloud of dust was coming closer and was slowing down. It kept doing this until it stopped completely, whoever it was stopped so fast that the dust had to have time to catch up, but was still a good distance away from the stone and the two mobians. Although the dust cloud did come up the hill, due to the sudden stop, and surrounded them. Both Tails and Knuckles started to cough but it was short lived for the dust dissipated within a few seconds. The two tailed fox turned his attention to Knuckles after the dust cleared.

"What do think that was" asked the young fox, it was the most the echidna had heard the fox say since he got up there.

Before the red echidna had a chance to speak the of them saw a figure. The figure came closer, the two recognized the figure as a black and red hedgehog also known as Shadow. The hedgehog wore an expressionless face as he looked at the two mobians as if he wasn't expecting anyone to be up here. Why would there be anyone up here, he waited until he knew that the memorial service was over but he must have not waited long enough.

"Wasn't expecting to see the battered Team Sonic up here, I thought everyone would have left by now" said Shadow as he looked upon the two of them.

"Shut up" snapped Knuckles, annoyed by originally by Tails but he was pushed over the edge by Shadow, "I thought you hated Sonic, so why are you up here!"

"I wanted to see if the blue faker was really dead" replied the black and red hedgehog with a shrug, he took a quick glance around "So where's that Silver hedgehog, I would have thought to see him here with you two seeing that he did go on that failed mission with you guys."

Knuckles glared at Shadow but had no answer for the second question, he had no clue where Silver was. The red mobian glanced over at the two tailed fox, as if hinting the fox to answer. Tails was sharing his home with Silver at the moment, so it was more likely for the young mobian to know where the silver colored hedgehog was.

"Silver is at my house at the moment, he doesn't seem too interested in the memorial. He also seemed tired the last time I talked to him before heading up here" responded Tails for Knuckles. He felt a sharp pain all of a sudden, which made him wince a bit. The young fox was pretty good at keeping the fact that he was still in a lot of pain, so that was the first slip up he did showing the pain he was in. Shadow and Knuckles though didn't seem to notice.

"Tired?" said Shadow, it sound as if he asking a question. He shook his head before making his way to the gravestone, stepping on some of the flowers that were laid on the ground. The black and red mobian walked past Tails and looked at the stone. It was easy to tell that Sonic's body was not buried there, the ground was undisturbed. "I heard it was an explosion that did that blue hedgehog in" said Shadow with out even looking at either Knuckles or Tails.

"Yeah, it also took out Robotnik as well. Leave it to that genius to blow himself up" muttered Knuckles

"I heard about Robotnik as well, but everyone always talks about the hero so I heard more on Sonic then the doctor" said the black and red hedgehog, still not looking back "I think its sad that Sonic had let himself get blown up, I've seen that faker get out of tight spots including explosions. I thought he had more in him."

Tails had not thought about that, but Sonic would not have let himself blown up or would he? Sonic was know to do everything in his power to finish a job so Shadow may not be completely off. The young fox had a hard time with the whole thing, he did not want to think that Sonic would do something that stupid and let himself get blown up. Tails like to think that a mechanical failure happened that caused the explosion, so neither Sonic or Robotnik saw it coming. It was only a theory because no one knew what caused Robotnik's base to blow up and the young fox was not even awake when it happened.

"Hey you weren't there, you don't know what happened" snapped Knuckles once again. He hated thinking about the mission.

"You were and you still can't tell me what happened" responded Shadow as he turned to look at the two again.

The wind started to pick up, causing a huge gust of wind, and caught the flowers that were on the ground. It picked them up and twirled them in a circular motion, the flowers seemed to be dancing in the wind. Tails and Shadow, who were the closest to the grave which the flowers where laid next to, were surrounded by the dancing flowers. The wind stopped the tornado like motion and carried off with the flowers, the colors streaked the grey sky. Shadow watched the flowers fly away along with Tails, Knuckles did so as well. It was weird for everyone, the way the wind came and carried off with the flowers. It only left a few flowers behind, mainly the ones that Shadow and Tails were standing on.

The young fox felt another sharp pain, this one was worse then the one not that long ago. The pain become overwhelming that the young mobian could feel his sight failing him and his body becoming numb. Within moments the two tailed fox was on the ground out cold next to Shadow.

"He lasted pretty long, I'm still amazed he got up here" said Knuckles walking over to Shadow and the passed out fox.

"Need some help" asked Shadow

"Help for what?" asked the echidna

"I don't think you can carry him home with your arm being like that" responded the black and red hedgehog figuring that knuckles could not carry Tails.

It took Knuckles off a bit that Shadow offered to help but he didn't want to admit that he needs it. Although the hedgehog was right, the echidna most likely could not carry Tails home due to his arm being hurt. Shadow didn't wait for an answer, he scooped the two tailed fox off the ground and held the fox in his arms. He started to walk off without Knuckles. The echidna growled a bit before walking off as well to catch up to the hedgehog, it wasn't that he wasn't thankful but he hated the idea of being useless. The two left the hill behind them. The big oak tree and the stone was fading away in the distance.

* * *

A/N: Sorry about taking so long to get this up, but you know life and stuff gets in the way. I also written out this chapter like five or six times (I could not get this chapter written out the way I wanted for the life of me XD). I was about ready to drop this chapter but I figured this was an important part, so I kept it. Yeah hardly no Sliver in here, sorry about that XD

I really hope I didn't fail too much on this chapter because the first chapter is always the hardest for me to write. I hope you did enjoyed this chapter though, until next time see you all later :)


	3. The Red Emerald

"Tails are you in here" asked Silver as he peeked into Tails's workshop.

"Yes, I'm just grabbing something so I can work on the Tornado" answered a voice, the young fox was nowhere to be seen. "Need something Silver"

The silver colored hedgehog walked into the workshop and closed the door behind him. "Where are you?" asked Silver as he looked around to find the twin tailed fox. After a few seconds he changed the subject as he continued to look for Tails. "Anyways Amy and Cream are looking for you, don't you remember promising them that you would hang out with them today."

"I'm over by the mechanical parts shelf" answered Tails, but then there was a moment of complete silence. "Really, thats today? I forgot all about that" sighed the young fox.

"Yeah Amy asked me to go get you" said the hedgehog as he made his was over to the mechanical shelf.

"She forced you didn't she" asked Tails, he though knew the answer already.

"That hammer of her's is something fierce" laughed Silver sheepishly as he rubbed his head. He soon spotted Tails who was a wooden ladder.

It had been about five months since the mission, everyone had to start move on with their lives including the twin tailed fox. The first few months though were probably the hardest for him, but he didn't complain. Tails had not only the physical wounds that he had gotten from the mission but he had to deal with the emotional turmoil of loosing his best friend. Everyone was hurt by the loss of Sonic but Tails was probably the most effected by the whole issue. Sonic was not just a good friend of the twin tailed fox, but more of a older brother to him. Tails had no other family so with the loss of the blue blur, the twin tailed fox had lost the only family he had known. He though had to be strong for everyone because Sonic would have wanted that. Tails found that out easier said than done, without him thinking about it he started to pull away from everyone. Cream though had come up with a plan a few days ago that Amy and her would spend a whole day with Tails. The young rabbit thought it would do both Tails and Amy some good to get out and have some fun. Amy had been torn up over the loss of Sonic as well, she cried for weeks but like everyone else she started to move on as well, although it is still hinted that she is still touchy and emotional over the subject. Everyone though found it to be best to never say Sonic or anything that relates to him in front of her. As to where they planed on going, Cream kept it a secret from him.

Tails spotted something on one of the higher shelves, it looked like an ordinary plain cardboard shoe box but something was telling him that it didn't belong there. It sort of looked to be out of place on the shelf. He figured that he should see what was in it but the ladder didn't go high enough for the fox to reach it. He stood on his tippy toes but the shoe box laid just out of his reach. Tails couldn't use his twin tails to fly and get it because they didn't work too well inside, especially in his workshop. He continued to try and grab the shoe box, each time he leaned more towards it. After several attempts he had himself leaned enough so he was able to grab it. One thing he didn't think of though was once he grabbed the shoe box it caused him to loss his balance. Tails tried to catch himself but it ended in vain and he came toppling down onto the floor hard.

The force that was made by Tails's fall caused various objects to fall off the self and towards the young fox. He had no time to move out of the way so he watched the objects come towards him. Silver made an green colored aura appear around himself and then the same aura appeared around the objects, which caused them to stop in mid air. The hedgehog used his psychic power then to move the objects away from Tails and released then onto the floor a few feet away. When he released the objects the aura around him disappeared.

"Tails are you okay" asked Silver as he glanced over to the twin tailed fox.

"I'm fine, thanks for the save Silver" replied Tails as he sat up, besides almost being trampled by various objects that came off the shelf the fox was fine.

"You're welcome, so what is in that box anyways" wonder the hedgehog as he pointed to the box that was in the fox's hands.

"I don't know actually" muttered Tails.

The twin tailed fox glanced at the shoe box for a second and then removed the lid. He saw something wrapped in a dark navy blue cloth, which was the only thing that was in the box. Tails unwrapped the cloth and all of a sudden his expression changed. A surprised expression came across the young fox's face as if he could not believe what he was looking at.

"What is it" said Silver in an impatient tone as he walked over to Tails and tried to look see what the fox had. Tails though had in concealed from the hedgehog's view.

Tails grabbed the object out of the box and held it up, the hedgehog saw why the fox had been taken by surprise. The twin tailed fox held a red colored emerald which shimmered in his hand a bit, it was one of the seven all powerful chaos emeralds.

"Sonic gave me it a few days before that you know what" said Tails as he looked at the emerald, he sort of looked to be lost in though as he gazed upon the jewel. "I guess with all that had happened over the last few months it sort of got forgotten. He gave it to me so I could study it, so I could get a better understanding of them. I've been able in the past to create look-a-like chaos emeralds but they had no where near as much power as a real one. They both have similar qualities, but mine tend to shatter if they use up too much of their power. Although to be fair, I've seen my chaos emeralds able to perform chaos control, which did save Sonic from a tight situation when Robotnik launch him into space, but they tend to drain the power of the user. If I improve them they could be a very useful source of energy though"

"So do you have these fake emeralds somewhere" asked Silver

"Yeah, I keep them in my workshop. Don't worry this one is a real one" said Tails as he looked over to the hedgehog , he knew that he kept the real on from the fake ones and since this one was wrapped up it and put into a shoe box was the one that Sonic had given him. A idea came across the young fox's head. "Hey Silver, do you want to see if using a chaos emerald would help" asked Tails as he offered the red emerald to Silver.

Silver took the chaos emerald that Tails offered to him and glanced at the powerful tool that laid in his hands. "Its worth a shot"

"Mr. Tails, Mr. Silver are you here" asked a voice shyly . It was no doubt that the voice belonged to Cream. A door closed, although it was shut so softly that it was hard to tell that it had been closed, and footsteps were heard clearly though.

Silver put the emerald in his left hand and offered Tails his right hand to help the fox off the ground. The twin tailed fox looked at the hand that the hedgehog offered for a moment before he took the hand that was offered. Silver pulled Tails up off the ground, after he helped the young fox up Tails pulled his hand away from the hedgehog's. Cream must have heard them because a few moments later the workshop door opened.

"Thanks, so I guess I'll clean up workshop later and we can try out the chaos emerald later as well" said Tails as he dusted himself off "It wouldn't hurt the plane if I postponed tuning it up for a few hours either or maybe I should just tell them I'll go another day "

"It would do you good to get out, alright Tails" replied Silver "Besides I've been waiting five months, a few hours won't really matter to me. The plane won't die if you postpone a few hours and I'll clean up the mess, nothing to worry about."

"No, I said I'll clean it up" snapped the twin tailed fox. He sort of resented Silver a bit, he felt that the hedgehog tried to take Sonic's place at times. Tails knew that all Silver wanted to do was to help but sometimes it would be too much for him. No one could take Sonic's place, not Silver not anyone. Tails though felt that he was a bit harsh on Silver. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you"

"Its fine, I'll leave it for you okay" sighed Silver. It was no use in him fighting with the twin tailed fox, besides he felt sorry for Tails. It must be hard to lose someone that close, even being the outsider that he was Silver could see their bond. The hedgehog could not remember is he ever had a bond like that with anyone. He was staying with the fox only because Sonic had invited for him to stay, which only about a few days before _that_ mission. Sonic had found him in an open grassy field unconscious, which was weird within itself because Silver could not even remember how he got there in the first place. Then only to find out that he could no longer time travel and that he was stuck in this time period, after the the mission had ended. Which was another weird thing, since the hedgehog had a natural ability to time travel even without the help of a chaos emerald. Tails though kept the invitation open that Sonic gave him that he could stay at their house, since Silver had no where else to go.

The footsteps came closer until Cream and her pet chao Cheese came into their view. When she saw both Tails and Silver, her face lite up with a smile. "Oh there you two are, Mr. Tails lets get going okay" said the long floppy eared rabbit as she looked at the twin tailed fox. The young rabbit turned her attention to Silver for a moment. "I almost forgot to tell you Mr. Silver, mama is looking for you. I was going to tell you earlier but I couldn't before Ms. Amy hit you with her hammer and told you to look for Mr. Tails" Cream noticed that Silver had a chaos emerald in his hand "Where did you get that Mr. Silver" she asked as she pointed to the red emerald in the hedgehog's left hand.

"Tails found it" replied Silver as he looked at the emerald. He then picked up the navy blue cloth out of the shoe box and wrapped the red colored chaos emerald in it. He then placed the re-wrapped chaos emerald back into the box and put the lid onto it. The hedgehog picked the box off the ground and placed it on Tails's work desk. "Well then lets get going, you two have plans along with Amy and I have to find out what Vanilla wants me for" said the hedgehog as he turned to look at the two.

Once the three of them got outside, a certain pink hedgehog waiting for them. She wore he usual cherry red dress and her matching boots, in her hands though she was holding a picnic basket. It was probably safe to assume that she was with Cream and had been waiting there since the young rabbit came into the house.

"Took you long enough" scuffed Amy, she then glared at the silver colored hedgehog " I can't believe you can't follow a simple, go get Tails". Silver rolled his eyes at her comment.

"Sorry, I forgot that it was today" admitted Tails, he though decided to stand up for the psychic hedgehog "Silver did come to get me, but we ran into something in the workshop"

"The important thing Ms. Amy is that now we're ready to go" interjected Cream before Amy had a chance to react, she didn't want anyone to start fighting. Cheese nodded in agreement.

The pink hedgehog let out a sigh. "You're right Cream" she replied as she looked away from Silver.

"So where are we going" asked the twin tailed fox

"Isn't obvious, we're going on a picnic" said Amy as she held up the basket as if to show it off. Today seemed like it was a perfect day for a picnic. The sun shined and there was not a cloud to be seen. The temperature was favorable as well.

"Don't worry Mr. Tails, you'll love where we're heading. It'll be fun" said the long floppy eared rabbit with a smile.

"Chao, chao" added Cheese in happily

"Silver, I figured if I followed the noise I would find you" laughed a voice in a well manner tone.

The sudden appearance of someone caused them all to stop talking. They all turned to see who it was, only to find that it was Cream's mother Vanilla. She looked just like her daughter just an older version. Vanilla, like her daughter, wore a dress except her's was longer and looked very formal. It was purple and she wore a burgundy colored vest with a white piece at the top of the vest. She wore a orange colored neck tie which matched her daughter's and she also wore fancy pointed dress shoes, which matched the color of the vest.

"You saved me the trouble of looking for you Vanilla" said the psychic hedgehog once he identified who had spoke.

"Sorry about surprising you kids like that. I figured it would be better for me to go get Silver, I would feel bad for making him look for me" said Vanilla in a apologetic tone

"So what do you need" asked Silver

"I need some help moving some big objects around the house, they're too heavy for me to move by myself. Vector and the rest of the Chaotix are still out of town with Knuckles on a case. Usually Vector helps me, but he and the others haven't come back. I wanted to see if Silver would mind helping me"

"I wouldn't mind helping you move some things Vanilla" responded Silver.

"Thank you Silver, thats nice of you" said Vanilla as she gave him a warm smile.

"So they're still on that case, its been a few days hasn't it" interjected Tails. He was still stuck on the thought on why the Chaotix wanted Knuckles for the case. Usually Vector the crocodile, Charmy the bee, and Espio the chameleon were capable on doing their cases on their own. It was something to ask the Chaotix when they got back.

"Yes, its been a couple of days. I guess it must be a hard case they are on" answered Vanilla.

"Come on Tails, if we don't leave soon we won't have anytime to do anything" said Amy as she handed the basket to Cream. She then grabbed Tails be the wrist and started to drag him along, the twin tailed fox sort of let her drag him because he didn't put up much of a fight.

"Why do I have the feeling I'm being kidnaped" sighed Tails as he continued to be dragged along by Amy.

Cream saw that the two were leaving and she started to go after them. Before she took a step forward she glanced over to her mother and Silver. "Bye mama, bye Mr Silver we'll see you later" said the young rabbit as she gave them a wave good bye and then she head off to go catch up with Amy and Tails.

"Chao" exclaimed Cheese as it waved and followed behind Cream.

Vanilla and Silver waved back and watched the three and the chao disappear into the distance. After a few moments the two of them headed over to Vanilla and Cream's house to start on the house work.

* * *

**A/N:** Yeah I made Silver's time travel ability that he is able to perform it without a chaos emerald. I'm pretty sure he can do it, just don't kill me over it(I mean I only saw him in Sonic 06 and it looked like Shadow and Sonic could time travel too, but only with the chaos emeralds. I wanted to give Silver some awesomeness all to himself, so he can time travel with or with a chaos emerald okay 8D) . That though doesn't matter much now.

Cheese has been referred to as male and also female before, so its an it here because that whole gender thing just confused me. Also aren't chao genderless anyways? Sorry about Cheese not having much of a part here, I sort of added the chao after I wrote the chapter. I kind of just wrote it in so Cream would have her Cheese because she always has it with her.

Anyways I hoped you enjoyed this chapter :)


	4. Assault on Angel Island

It wasn't that long before they had made it to a open green field, flowers blossomed everywhere streaking the green field with color. The sky started to turn grey though, but it didn't make a difference really. It was a cool day and there was only a soft breeze. Amy had let go of Tails a few minutes after they had left, he had protested they he could walk by himself. Cream and Cheese just sort of followed behind them. They found a nice place to set up their picnic. Cream started to get everything set up, Amy and Tails offered to help the young rabbit but she told them that she had everything covered.

"Wow I hope it doesn't decided to rain" said Amy as she looked up to the grey sky. "It was just beautiful out not that long ago"

Tails was about to say something until Cream interjected. "Alright you two, its all set up" she said with excitement.

A red and white checkered blanket was laid out on the soft green grass, on top of it was the picnic basket. Four plates where laid out and various utensils were placed with each plate. Cream knelt next to the basket while Cheese took its spot next to the rabbit. Tails and Amy sat across from each other, which the last two plates were located at. Cream handed out the food, which were already made sandwiches and various fruits. She also brought some other finger food as well, of which she didn't even know what they were. After they all had some food on their plate, they started to eat.

"Wow this is tasty Cream" said Tails as he just finished tasting one of the various finger food.

"Thanks Mr. Tails , mama helped me make most of it" replied Cream with a smile.

"Cream, I think you two have the best cooking on all of Mobius" added Amy.

About fifteen minutes later rain drop fell onto Tail's head, he glanced up to the sky. Another rain drop fell this time it landed on his face. The twin tailed fox glanced over to the two girls and the chao "Did anyone else feel a rain drop?"

"I felt something" answered Cream.

"Maybe we should start packing up, I really don't feel like being stuck out in the rain" suggested Amy.

Soon they all had everything packed back into the basket, it didn't take them more then probably ten minutes to repack everything. The sparse rain drops soon started to become much more together and it started to pour rain from the sky. The three mobians and the chao ran off towards homeward so that they could get out of the rain, hopefully it wouldn't take them as lang as it did to get there.

* * *

It was raining heavily and was pretty dark out as Knuckles ran through the forest of his homeland, Angel Island, with team Chaotix behind him. The echidna ran though slow enough for them to keep up .

"Why are we here" asked Vector "I mean yes the mission is over but..."

"The Master Emerald is in trouble, didn't you hear me the first time" snapped Knuckles "I already told you three that you are more than welcome to go home. You know where your extreme gear are"

"And let you have all the fun? No way!" responded the crocodile, he turned to his two partners "Right guys"

"Right!" said Espio and Charmy in unison.

"Well then shut up" growled the echidna.

The rain did not seem to phase the echidna. He was determined to get to the Master Emerald shrine nothing was going to slow him down, not even the rain. The ground was a bit on the slippery side and he ran through a few puddles, which splashed Team Chaotix a few times in the face. Knuckles knew where he was going, they did not so they had to follow behind him. It wasn't long before they reached the shrine.

"Wow this place is cool" exclaimed Charmy as he looked at the shrine.

The Master Emerald sat in its usual spot in the middle of the shrine, it didn't even looked like it was disturbed. "Are you sure that something is up with the Master Emerald" asked Espio.

Knuckles waked towards the Master Emerald shrine while Team Chaotix stayed behind, they didn't know what to make out of it. They though stood ready so incase something happened that they could help. Although they knew Knuckles quite well, he usually didn't need back up.

"Oh look the guardian decided to show up" laughed a voice, although they could not see who the voice belonged to they knew it was a female. It caused the echidna to stop dead in his tracks just short of the shrine. "It doesn't matter really, I'll still be taking that emerald with me"

"Rouge, you're not getting the Master Emerald!" shouted Knuckles almost instantly, he wasn't sure who it was but Rouge seemed to fit.

"Rouge? Stupid guardian my name is not Rouge" mocked the voice. After a few moments she spoke again. "Are you going to make this difficult?"

"Whoever you are you can forget about taking this emerald" snapped the echidna.

"Difficult it is then" sighed the female "Take care of him my pet"

Knuckles was a bit taken off, who did she just talk to. Out of nowhere it seemed something came out and managed to kick the echidna, it had enough force to move him but he stayed on his feet. Knuckles looked to see what had just attacked him, the echidna spotted a cloaked figured not that far from him. It stood between him and the shrine.

"Knuckles are you okay, what just attacked you" asked Vector.

"You three stay back, I don't need help" snapped the echidna as he glared at the figure.

The figured launched itself at Knuckles, he had no time to thing so he raised his hands to blocked it. He didn't take any damage as he deflected the figure. Knuckles ran at the intruder but missed, the figured had moved away quickly to avoid the attack. The echidna hit the ground instead of the figure. It then turned around and kicked Knuckles in the back, he went face first into the muddied ground. The echidna pulled his face up and rubbed the mud away from his eyes, his sharp teeth were bared. Knuckles was beyond annoyed with whoever the figure was, he had a hard time getting a good hit or any hit in. The fact that it was dark out and raining didn't help his case much. He though had to protect the Master Emerald, no matter what.

Knuckles got back up onto his feet, just like before the figure went right after him. The echidna though jumped out of the way before the figure had a chance to attack and then turned around, he hit the figure with his fist. It launched the figured quite a few feet and even father when it slid across the wet ground. The figured smack a truck of a tree back first.

"Finally" growled Knuckles as he walked over to the figure. When he made it over to the figure, he spotted that the hood of the cloak had fallen down. The echidna saw who the figure truly was, when he realized who it was he wore a blank expression. "It can't be" he muttered under his breath.

"Must I do everything" growled a voice, this one was different than the female's voice. This one was a male's voice but it sort of had a demonic feel to it.

"Whatever floats your boat" sighed the female.

Another figure showed itself, this one though had a familiar shape to it. Although it was too dark out to make sure, there was no doubt that the figure at least shared the same shape as Shadow the hedgehog.

"Is that Shadow?" asked Charmy as he looked to Vector and Espio

"Well he sure looks like it" answered Espio.

All of a sudden something grabbed Knuckles and lifted him into the air, it was as if darkness wrapped around the echidna. It then started to thrash Knuckles into various things, it varied from the ground to surrounding trees. The cloaked figured put the hood back on and got back onto its feet while the echidna was being occupied.

"Don't worry about the echidna anymore he has that one covered, how about you play with his friends" suggested the female voice, she was the only one out of three to not have at least shown her silhouette.

"She means us, right?" wondered Charmy

"Yeah" said Espio simply

"Shoot" sighed Vector "Can we at least get some light or something". Everyone was pretty far from the Master Emerald, so that couldn't even use its light really to see.

Knuckles took a heavy beating from whatever had grabbed him, it had made sure of that, but he tried to stay strong. He felt that he was seriously losing the fight...and he couldn't get the image of the figure out of his head. The echidna knew he could not let the Master Emerald fall into their hands, Mobius only knows what they wanted it for. He started to feel himself slip away into slumber, his body was becoming weak from the constant thrashing. He could take quite a lot but even he had his limit. A lighting bolt streaked across the raining night sky. It lightened the entire sky, the flash caused the thing to drop Knuckles onto the ground.

"Hey guys did ya see that!" exclaimed Charmy, the figure saw no interest in the bee at the moment so he just sort of hanged out at the moment. The figure seemed to have a perked interest on the two older members of Team Chaotix.

"Sort of busy here" muttered Espio as he got kick and skidded across the wet ground.

"But guys" whined the hyper bee.

"What, what is so important" snapped Vector as he kept a look out for the figure.

"Well it looks like the dark stuff doesn't the lighting" said Charmy.

"How is that freaking important right now" growled the crocodile, he then was hit by a sideways kick to the head and rammed into a near by tree.

The echidna glanced over to the shrine, he was barely awake at the moment. He had no choice, he had to do it. "Chaos" shouted Knuckles, "Chaos if you can hear me...I want you to shatter the Master Emerald"

"Chaos?" muttered the female voice.

The Master Emerald started to glow brightly, much more brightly than usual. A inhuman noise came from within the powerful gem. The light became blinding for a few seconds, everyone stopped dead even the figure that was attacking the Chaotix. 'Shadow' covered his eyes and hissed when the light became brighter, it was like it caused him pain to look at it. When the light subsided the Master Emerald floated in midair but it was now in several pieces, which then almost instantly shot out into all different directions. After the Master Emerald pieces went into different directions, Knuckles passed out on the ground. 'Shadow' growled in frustration when he realized what the echidna just did.

"Wow didn't see that coming" said the female voice in amazement.

* * *

Something all of a sudden caught Cream's eye, she stopped running to see what it was. "Ms. Amy, Mr. Tails you must have a look at this" she said as she grabbed Cheese to hold.

Amy and Tails glanced up to the sky, light streaks went into random directions. It was easy to see the light in the sky since it was dark out thanks to the grey storm clouds. It wasn't long before the lights dimmed away and they were left in the dark cold rain once more.

"Wow what do you think that was" asked Amy

"It wasn't lighting" muttered Tails, if it had been lighting then he would have known it like the streak of lighting from before. The lights they just saw didn't make a noise at all. The twin tails fox thought for a moment and then a thought occurred to him, wasn't Angel Island in that direction. "I think something happened on Angel Island"

"Thats right, you don't care much for lighting" added Amy

"What do you mean Mr Tails?" wondered Cream

"I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that Angel Island is in that direction. Right were the lights came from" said Tails, he sounded as if he was thinking about something. A streak of lighting suddenly streaked across the sky and a loud thunder followed behind it. The sudden lighting strike caused the twin tailed fox to jump and yelp. He sighed afterwards. _I really need to stop being so scared of lighting, its just burst of energy that clouds make when they rub together. Nothing to fear... _thought Tails to himself.

"Oh Mr. Tails, are you okay?" asked Cream

"I'm alright" said Tails as he took a deep breath in and out to calm himself down.

"Well what ever it was we still need to get out of the rain" sighed Amy "Can we check it out when the rain stops?"

Amy actually had a point, Tails would have to take the Tornado to check out Angel Island and going right now wasn't smart due to the weather. The last thing he need was to be struck by lighting while on the Tornado. "I guess waiting until the weather lightens up wouldn't hurt" replied the twin tailed fox.

"My home is the closest, we can go there for right now" suggested Cream

"Its settled then, we'll go to Cream's house and then after the weather calms down a bit we can go check out it out" said Amy

Tails wanted to protest Amy and Cream coming along when he headed over to Angel Island, but honestly he could use the company for the trip there. "Alright, sounds good" said the twin tailed fox simply.

* * *

**A/N:** And there you have it, chapter four :D

It took me a long time to update, sorry about that for those I've kept waiting. I do hope it was worth the wait though. With that said, until next time see ya!


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